Farmers Insurance - Really can they get away with this?

Sorry, this post is a rant against Farmers Insurance - if you don't want to hear me rant then move on - I'm HACKED.

I know some of you have Farmers Insurance, and I know that some of you like it. That's not my experience, and I think that I'm a pretty fair person ... just read all my comments going back through time on this site, I think I've only ripped into like two or three people. Overall, I think I'm very fair and like to give the benefit of the doubt.

The facts are that I was in a wreck 23 months ago (have to settle in 24 months in Texas) and at that time they said I was 40% at fault for the accident. So I went to my own insurance company and they took farmers to arbitration. Well, it took over a year, but we WON arbitration against Farmers. Ok, cool, I am officially 0% at fault and Farmers has to pay all of my claims. So now, when I am trying to fully settle against all of the claims and they just came out and said that they have no proof that I won arbitration and they aren't going to pay me anything.

What? They already paid the vehicle off and I got my $500 deductible back from my insurance company. I sent them in additional rental costs and they said they were going to pay, but did not pay. I sent in my lost wages and they said they would pay, then they said they would not pay. There are other things out there and they said they would pay, then they said they would not pay. VERY frustrating. This is either a bad system they have (which is possible - let's be fair) or they are using this as a stalling strategy.

I was in a wreck that caused $9,500 in damage to my vehicle ALONE. The other vehicle's front end was demolished and the woman who caused the wreck had a broken sternum. She was also ticketed at the scene for failure to yield to me. My insurance company took Farmers Insurance to arbitration and won.

Meanwhile, my neck and back still hurt, I just went into the Chiropractor again two weeks ago. I have two days lost work (should have been more, but I was 4 weeks into a new job and didn't have a big reserve of time off to take). My wife was pregnant and was at home in bed for 12 weeks with the worst kind of nausea (hyperemesis) that pregnant women get (1 out of 200 women get it), so I couldn't even get all of the treatment that I needed.

Anyhow, I have an attorney lined up and if it comes to that they will step in and take over for me, but I'm really just looking to get 1) my lost wages, 2) medical bills and medicine, 3) something reasonable for pain and suffering because my neck still hurts and the chiropractor has a therapy plan for me to still work on... 4) lost use of my vehicle for 4 months and only got 1 month of rental car out of it.

Anyhow, that's my rant. Hopefully it will all work out - I hate to have to get into a lawsuit, but I've done it becuase when I had to, so I guess I will do it again.

Well, I'm dealing with someone named Steve K. out of the Grand Prairie, TX office. He seems fair and reasonable, but he is going straight down the line that I reported about two years ago. That Farmers pays bonuses to folks who can suppress payments to people like me. (they were sued by a few states for doing this type of thing)

Now, part of this is my fault for waiting so long to try to settle. But, I did lose a year going through arbitration, and since then my Doctor had passed away, making it harder to get records. I've gone through quite a bit trying to make a living so it's just one of those things that I just slowly kept working at. Now I have a short amount of time left and this just seems like it's a stalling tactic to force me to either lawyer up or just settle for something small.

It's been a while since I read the Texas regulations on this but if I remember correctly they can only refuse to pay out on items you brought up after the time limit expires. If thier disputing things at this point you need to make sure their on record, possibly by notifying them with a registered letter outlining your list of outstanding debts/bills needing to be paid.
If the issue goes to court then you have proof the items were brought to their attention and they refused payment after loosing arbitration. Someone somewhere, possibly your insurance company, has a letter of the arbitration findings and rulings.
Insurance companies are in the buisiness to make money, they dont care who gets screwed as long as they get thier profit margin, most people being told no walk away without knowing thier rights and end up getting screwed.
A lawyer is probably a good idea right now.

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that. Back when i had my wreck over summer, the lady's insurance company (Farmers) lead us on a wild goose chace for about a month until they told us that she didn't have insurance with them anymore due to her multiple DUI's (she was drunk when she pulled out infront of me too).

Thats a crappy situation and it sound like you have been more then fair about it. I would call up that lawyer and sue the crap out of them for everything you can get. Like I said you seem to have been very fair and they dont want to play so i would just go the extreme. Thats just me but i bet facing a huge lawsuit the the things your asking for would seem like a small (and easy) thing to give you a lot quicker

I am not sure about the regulations in TX, but in IN the law says that the statute of limitations for settlement of a claim is 2 years from the date of loss. Before that 2 year anniversary, settlement has to be reached or suit has to be filed. As for the proof of arbitration filing, your insurance company claim rep will have the documentation to show the verdict. They can provide that to you. If it is getting down to "crunch time" and you are not getting anywhere with Farmer's, filing suit may be the best option.

As for the settlement, you would be entitled to...

repairs to your vehicle
rental reimbursement for the length of time that repair would have taken
medical expenses & lost wages during treatment that are deemed in line with the injuries received
"bodily injury" settlement (i.e. pain and suffering) to include time to recover from your diagnosed injury and possible compensation for the headaches that you have had to go through

I am not sure about Farmer's, but I can tell you is that in my years employed with State Farm, I have been accused of getting a bonus based on underpaying a claim. I can tell you that is not, nor has ever been, the case. Everyone likes to make comments about how insurance companies are out to screw people (as stated above). But, in my experiences, the people who are employed by the insurance companies are good people and are just trying to do their job. Many times people feel that they are being treated unfairly because they have an overinflated idea of what a claim is worth. I am not saying that that is the case here and it has certainly taken WAY too long for you to be taken care of.

I am not sure about the regulations in TX, but in IN the law says that the statute of limitations for settlement of a claim is 2 years from the date of loss. Before that 2 year anniversary, settlement has to be reached or suit has to be filed. As for the proof of arbitration filing, your insurance company claim rep will have the documentation to show the verdict. They can provide that to you. If it is getting down to "crunch time" and you are not getting anywhere with Farmer's, filing suit may be the best option.

As for the settlement, you would be entitled to...

repairs to your vehicle
rental reimbursement for the length of time that repair would have taken
medical expenses & lost wages during treatment that are deemed in line with the injuries received
"bodily injury" settlement (i.e. pain and suffering) to include time to recover from your diagnosed injury and possible compensation for the headaches that you have had to go through

I am not sure about Farmer's, but I can tell you is that in my years employed with State Farm, I have been accused of getting a bonus based on underpaying a claim. I can tell you that is not, nor has ever been, the case. Everyone likes to make comments about how insurance companies are out to screw people (as stated above). But, in my experiences, the people who are employed by the insurance companies are good people and are just trying to do their job. Many times people feel that they are being treated unfairly because they have an overinflated idea of what a claim is worth. I am not saying that that is the case here and it has certainly taken WAY too long for you to be taken care of.

I hope everything works out for you in the end.

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Thanks for that viewpoint. I have read that Farmers was sued by a few different states for actually giving out bonuses to adjusters who could keep payouts the lowest. North Dakota it was $750k and California was $1mil I think in fines to Farmers.

The fine is the largest the Insurance Department has ever imposed, Poolman said. State law requires the money to go into the state's general treasury. It will not be used to compensate customers, and Poolman said he was unsure how many had been shortchanged.

Thanks for the comments, I'm going to chat with them tomorrow, I have to get the rest of my medical records and fax them into Farmers and then wait and see. I got the contact information for the guy who runs the liability department, so maybe I just got in with a bad group of folks or maybe there was an error. I will give them that the time-crunch is my fault, I've been dealing with a lot (some of which I have shared and some I have not shared on the site) over the past couple of years, so we'll just see how it all plays out.